Planning and Zoning Commission

Jim Harris, Chairman Lake Havasu City Suzannah Ballard Police Facility David Diaz 2360 McCulloch Blvd North Joan Dzuro Lake Havasu City, Arizona Paul Lehr 86403 Gabriele Medley www.lhcaz.gov Chad Nelson Dane Hatch, Alternate Matthew Mitchell, Alternate Tiffany Wilson, Alternate Planning and Zoning Commission Regular Meeting Minutes - Final Wednesday, August 17, 2022 9:00 AM 1. CALL TO ORDER Vice Chairman Nelson called the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m. 2. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Vice Chairman Nelson led the Pledge of Allegiance. 3. ROLL CALL Alternate Member Wilson was seated. Present: 9- Chad Nelson, Matthew Mitchell, Gabriele Medley, David Diaz, Suzannah Ballard, Joan Dzuro, Dane Hatch, Paul Lehr and Tiffany Wilson Absent: 1- Jim Harris 4. CORRESPONDENCE AND ANNOUNCEMENTS Mayor Sheehy honored former Planning Commissioner Don Bergen by thanking him for all his years of service to Lake Havasu City. Mr. Bergen started with the Planning Commission as an Alternate Member in 1990. He then served five terms as a Regular Member for a total of 19 years of service to Lake Havasu City. Mayor Sheehy stated Don and his wife Kris are long-time volunteers to the City and do amazing work. Mayor Sheehy presented Mr. Bergen with a plaque in honor of his expertise, knowledge, and steadfast commitment to the City's zoning codes and planning within the community and is greatfull for his service. A picture of Mayor Sheehy, Mr. & Mrs. Bergen, Planning Commission members and Staff was taken with his plaque. 5. MINUTES Ms. Ballard made a motion to approve the minutes of the last meeting. The motion was seconded by Ms. Dzuro and carried by the following vote: Aye: 7 - Nelson, Medley, Diaz, Ballard, Dzuro, Lehr and Wilson Lake Havasu City Page 1 Printed on 9/7/2022 Planning and Zoning Commission Minutes - Final August 17, 2022 6. PUBLIC HEARING ID 22-3410 Request for a Preliminary Subdivision Plat for Tesoro Townhouses, at 1080 Acoma Place, Tract 2287, Block 3, Lot 2B, Creating a 13-Unit Residential Townhouse and 11-Unit Garage Subdivision in the Residential Southgate District (R-SGD) (Trevor Kearns) Mr. Kearns thanked the Vice Chairman and presented a PowerPoint slideshow and narrative including some of the following key points: • The subject property is located between the end of Acoma Place and Alley 45. • The properties to the north are zoned Commercial Southgate District (C-SGD) and developed for commercial uses and vacant lots. • The property to the west and south are zoned Residential Southgate District (R-SGD) and developed for residential uses. • The property to the east is zoned Mixed-Use Neighborhood (MU-N) District, across the wash and developed as a senior living home. [Preliminary Plat Map shown on screen]. • The site is currently vacant but building permits have been submitted and design review is underway. The proposed townhouse plat will allow the units to be individually owned and they will be part of an association along with the common portions of the development. • The project includes: • 13 one-bedroom residential units with 13 covered parking spaces and 3 uncovered parking spaces. • 11 secondary garage units accessed from the alley. • Parcel A - An easement for ingress, egress, maintenance and operation of utilities, sewage, drainage, refuse collection, and emergency vehicles. • Parcel B - Common Pool Area. • The project will have a property owners association to manage and maintain the association improvements. Parcels A and B will be privately owned and the water and wastewater within the subdivision will be installed and maintained by the association. Mr. Diaz asked for clarification that these are one bedroom units and asked what the parking requirements are for these type of units. Mr. Kearns affirmed that they are one bedroom units and stated the parking requirement is one per unit. Ms. Ballard said she only counted 11 parking spaces. Mr. Kearns stated there are 16 total carport spaces. 13 spaces will be covered and 3 will be uncovered. He added that the garages (in the rear) are separate from the parking requirement. Parcel A will include the required parking spaces. Lake Havasu City Page 2 Printed on 9/7/2022 Planning and Zoning Commission Minutes - Final August 17, 2022 Lee Johnson, APL surveying stated he was available to answer any questions. Vice-Chairman Nelson stated that parking meets parking requirements. He asked Mr. Johnson if you need to be an owner in the development to buy/own one of the garages? Mr. Johnson stated he believes, the way the developer has set this up is, that the garage units will have to be owned by an owner of one of the units. Vice Chairman Nelson opened the Public Hearing. Emiliano Torres asked what formula planning is using for parking in these communities? Is the formula being used a generic, state wide or unique to Lake Havasu City? He stated this town is unique in that we should not have a lot of trucks with boats behind them that require two spots, with more and more visitors using these homes as Air B&B's or winter rentals. He said his son plans to buy one of these and use the garage to store his toys and yet rent out the residence. He knows there are HOAs that can limit this but HOAs are not permanent. What the Commission does is permanent. The question is what formula you are using to make sure there is adequate parking and not just flow into City streets. Vice Chairman Nelson stated the Commission does not review HOAs or CC&Rs. Mr. Morris stated the parking standards for this property meet the development code. He stated that in some zoning districts, the parking standards vary but in this particular district, every one bedroom or fewer unit needs one covered parking space. If it is more than two bedrooms/units, it needs one and a half spaces per unit, at least one covered. This project meets all the requirements. There are some areas, like the downtown area, that only requires one parking space. This is a fairly common zoning district. Mr. Morris stated that standards for parking are left up to the local jurisdiction, what they feel is the most adequate or appropriate for the City's needs. Vice Chairman Nelson closed the Public Hearing. Mr. Kearns stated that based on the findings, the Development Review Committee recommends approval of Land Use Action 22-3410, a Preliminary Subdivision Plat for Tesoro Townhouses, at 1080 Acoma Place, Tract 2287, Block 3, Lot 2B, creating a 13-Unit Residential Townhouse and 11-Unit Garage Subdivision in the Residential Southgate District. Mr. Diaz commented that Mr. Torres' comment is understood; however, the City has an inventory problem of housing and any housing development is going to help with the inventory need. He also stated the City is unique because we do not have street parking in most cases. Lake Havasu City Page 3 Printed on 9/7/2022 Planning and Zoning Commission Minutes - Final August 17, 2022 Vice Chairman Nelson stated that in his opinion, this project does have adequate parking. They have the garages plus the parking. What the neighbors do to get along is up to them. If someone wants to buy the unit just for the garage and rent the unit out and expect more parking, they are going to have to deal with the neighbors. Mr. Diaz made a motion to approve Item 22-3410, [a Preliminary Subdivision Plat for Tesoro Townhouses, at 1080 Acoma Place, Tract 2287, Block 3, Lot 2B, creating a 13-Unit Residential Townhouse and 11-Unit Garage Subdivision in the Residential Southgate District]. The motion was seconded by Ms. Dzuro and carried by the following vote: Aye: 6 - Nelson, Medley, Diaz, Ballard, Dzuro and Lehr Nay: 1 - Wilson ID 22-3411 A Request for a Planned Development Rezone for 2031 Industrial Boulevard, Tract 115, Block 9, Lot 1A, from General Commercial (C-2) to General Commercial/Planned Development (C-2/PD) to Allow Storage Units (Luke Morris) Mr. Morris thanked the Chairman and presented a PowerPoint slideshow and narrative including some of the following key points: • The subject property measures .34 acres and is currently used for open lot storage. • It is located at the northeast corner of Industrial Boulevard and Bahama Avenue. • A wash abuts the property to the north. • The lots to the north, across the wash, and to the east are zoned General Commercial (C-2) and developed with commercial uses. • The property to the west, across Bahama Avenue, is zoned Light Industrial (LI) and also developed as a commercial use. • The properties to the south, across Industrial Boulevard, are zoned Multiple-Family (R-M) and Limited Multiple-Family (R-3) and developed with single-family homes. • In November 2021, the City Council amended the Permitted Uses Table to eliminate storage units as an allowed use in the C-2 zoning district. • The City Council expressed concerns regarding prime commercial properties used for storage unit developments and stated publicly that the north and south entrances of the City should be protected. • However, it was also mentioned that an applicant could still request the storage unit use through the Planned Development (PD) Rezone process. • Therefore, the applicant makes this request to rezone the property to allow storage rental units for RVs, boats, and similar items. [Site Plan shown on screen]. • The Site Plan shows two, 24-foot-wide driveways accessing the property, one from Lake Havasu City Page 4 Printed on 9/7/2022 Planning and Zoning Commission Minutes - Final August 17, 2022 each street. • An ADA and two standard parking spaces, meeting the development standards, are shown. • Two, 18-foot-tall buildings with a total of ten storage units are proposed. • Building “A” is 42’ x 91’ and has seven units each measuring 13’ x 42’. Building “B” is 39’ x 39’ and has three units each measuring 13’ x 39’. • The buildings meet the setback standards, except the northwest corner of Building “B” appears to encroach into the 10-foot landscape buffer. • The building exteriors facing the streets are shown as stucco finished with the other exteriors as steel siding and roll-up doors. Building color is not indicated. • The proposed landscaping shows a more than adequate number of trees, shrubs, and decorative rock ground cover, but some of the landscaping plants need to be relocated out of the City’s right-of-way and into the 10-foot landscape buffer area. • The type and size of the required trees are not shown in the landscape calculations. • The landscaping and building setback deficiencies, along with any other non- compliance issues, will be addressed through the permitting process. • The City Council suggested that storage units may be allowed in some C-2 zoned areas through the PD process if the proposed development fits into the neighborhood. • The subject property is not located near a gateway into the City. • It is in an area that has several existing commercial and light industrial uses, with Light Industrial zoning across Bahama Avenue and commercial uses to the west and north. • Storage units do not have a large traffic impact and are typically not noisy uses. • The location lends itself well to the proposed small-scale storage unit development. Mr. Lehr asked what the history of the existing open storage is and if it is grandfathered in. Mr. Morris stated the outdoor storage was allowed through a Minor Conditional Use Permit that was a short term thing for a couple of years. The term has run out so now they are moving forward with their original plan to do storage units. Now, because of the time frame, they have to go through the planned development process. When they started the project, it was allowed to have storage units on the property. Rob Sampson, Selberg Associates stated Mr. Morris did such a phenomenal job presenting this, pretty much every talking point he had is covered so he has nothing else to say other than they will take the trees out of the City right-of-way. Vice Chairman Nelson asked if there will be fencing around the stormwater retention area and if it is required? Mr. Sampson stated it will depend on the depth but will have his civil engineer look at that. Mr. Morris stated he is not an expert in that regard but after a certain depth, a boundary safety fence is required around the water retention. That would be something to be reviewed under the Design Review process, which is addressed in the suggested motion. Lake Havasu City Page 5 Printed on 9/7/2022 Planning and Zoning Commission Minutes - Final August 17, 2022 Ms. Ballard asked, regarding the units closest to Industrial Boulevard, what the apron size is between the parking and the building? Mr. Sampson said there is a 10-foot buffer off the property line apron and then what is left to get to the right-of-way which is about 25 feet total. Ms. Ballard asked what is the distance between the parking space and the front of the first three units. Mr. Sampson stated it is in excess of what the City's minimum requirement is of 24 feet. Ms. Ballard asked if 24 feet is sufficient for someone to pull in the driveway and make a turn into those first three storage units? Mr. Sampson stated that historically, they do not get a lot of car traffic so it is typically a short use for the parking. Ms. Ballard asked if the average apron size for these storage units is 60 feet. Mr. Sampson stated that is a loaded question and that typically they are 5 feet beyond what the depth of the unit is, so if the unit is 35-feet they would be 40-feet. Vice Chairman Nelson opened the Public Hearing, hearing none, he closed the Public Hearing. Mr. Morris stated that based on the findings, the Development Review Committee recommends the Planning Commission forward a recommendation of approval to the City Council for Land Use Action No. 22-3411 for a Planned Development rezone for 2031 Industrial Boulevard, Tract 115, Block 9, Lot 1A, from General Commercial (C-2) to General Commercial/Planned Development (C-2/PD) to allow storage units as shown on the attached Development Plan with the following condition: 1. Building Permits and Design Review for compliance with the Development Code will be required prior to development of the property. This item is scheduled to be heard by the City Council at its September 27, 2022, meeting. Ms. Dzuro commented that she is aware the City's does not want storage units on either side along Highway 95; however, when the Commission is looking at the previous Townhouse item, for example, there is not a lot of storage area for people to put their toys in. She thinks storage units like this, in this industrial area, is a good idea. It gives people a chance who are buying these 1 or 2 bedroom homes to have a place to put their ATVs or whatever toys they might have. Mr. Lehr made a motion to recommend the City Council approve Land Use Action No. 22-3411 for a Planned Development rezone for 2031 Industrial Boulevard, Tract 115, Block 9, Lot 1A, from General Commercial (C-2) to General Commercial/Planned Development (C-2/PD) to allow storage units as shown on the attached Development Plan with the following condition: 1. Building Permits and Design Review for compliance with the Development Code will be required prior to development of the property. The motion was seconded by Ms. Ballard and carried by the following vote: Lake Havasu City Page 6 Printed on 9/7/2022 Planning and Zoning Commission Minutes - Final August 17, 2022 Aye: 7 - Nelson, Medley, Diaz, Ballard, Dzuro, Lehr and Wilson 7. CALL TO PUBLIC Emiliano Torres, who lives up in the Foothills area, asked a general question about legal requirements for the neighborhood meetings being conducted by developers for future development projects and whether the information received at those meetings is routed back to the City and/or Commission. Being that the Commission cannot answer questions at the Call to the Public, Mr. Morris informed Mr. Torres that Staff could speak with him after the meeting. 8. FUTURE MEETING The next Regular meeting is scheduled for September 7, 2022. An item has been submitted for this meeting. 9. ADJOURNMENT Vice Chairman Nelson adjourned the meeting at 9:31 a.m. _________________________________________ Chad Nelson, Vice Chairman _________________________________________ Maria Hart, Recording Secretary Lake Havasu City Page 7 Printed on 9/7/2022